BT has generated £1bn (US$1.52bn) from an underwritten accelerated bookbuild of roughly 222 million new shares to fund part of the cash portion for its £12.5bn (US$19bn) acquisition of British mobile operator EE.
The shares were sold for £4.55,…
BT has generated £1bn (US$1.52bn) from an underwritten accelerated bookbuild of roughly 222 million new shares to fund part of the cash portion for its £12.5bn (US$19bn) acquisition of British mobile operator EE.
The shares were sold for £4.55, which represents a slight discount on the fixed-line incumbent’s opening price of £4.58 today. BT said the offering would equate to roughly 3% of the company’s equity.
JP Morgan is acting as the sole global coordinator on the issuance, and joint bookrunner and corporate broker on the transaction alongside BofA Merrill Lynch. Goldman Sachs is also serving as a joint bookrunner.
Of the £12.5bn BT has agreed to spend on EE, £6.8bn will be paid in stock to the joint venture’s parents: Deutsche Telekom and Orange.
The remaining £5.7bn will be paid in cash. BT plans to issue £4.7bn in debt on top of the £1bn share offering to make up the balance.
For its 50% stake, Deutsche Telekom will receive a small cash payment and roughly £5.1bn in BT shares, which will make it BT’s largest individual shareholder with a 12% stake.
French incumbent Orange will get £3.4bn in cash and shares worth £1.7bn for its shares, giving it 4% of BT’s stock.
The UK incumbent has said the takeover may not complete until the end of March 2016. In the event that a deal is not reached, BT will use the proceeds from the share placement for general corporate purposes.
